(Thank you for the book friend Lewd - Cheap Little Prince for the 500 starting coins, thank you; Starting from the first release, please subscribe to the genuine version, everyone's morality is not only worth those 6 cents! ）

Due to insomnia last night, Lin Yi didn't sleep well all night, and finally fell asleep, but it was already dawn. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, the phone rings.

Lin Yi stretched out his hand from the quilt and took the mobile phone, and a familiar voice in the mobile phone said, "Mr. Lin, how is it, I'm waiting for you at the door of the hotel." ”

"Who, are you ---" Lin Yi was still a little hysterical, suddenly, he woke up, isn't this voice the big guy Hai Baichuan, he is waiting for himself at the door of the hotel? Lin Yi's head immediately remembered what happened last night, and it seemed that he had promised him to visit his auction company today.

"I'm sorry, wait a minute!" Lin Yi couldn't care about sleeping lazily with his head covered, so he immediately jumped out of bed, washed his face and brushed his teeth, and was busy with his work quickly, and then rushed to the door of the hotel in a hurry.

As expected, at the door of the hotel, Mr. Hai Baichuan was waiting for him with a smile, and behind him was a black Mercedes-Benz with a simple style, and when he saw Lin Yi coming out, he smiled and said, "Didn't disturb your rest, right?" ”

Lin Yi gasped, "No, no." I'm sorry, I, I'm really ......."

"It's okay, I didn't have to wait long, please get in the car." Hai Baichuan was very enthusiastic to help Lin Yi open the car door.

Lin Yi was a little embarrassed, got into the car, and said to Hai Baichuan: "Mr. Hai, didn't you say that you sent someone here, why did you come in person?" ”

Hai Baichuan smiled, sat in the driver's seat, and said while fastening his seat belt: "Originally, I sent someone, but I want to take you to a place first, and after thinking about it, it is better to come in person." ”

"Somewhere, somewhere?"

"Hehe, you'll know when you go." After saying that, Hai Baichuan started the car.

……

In other words, with the rise of China's wealthy class, antique auction transactions have become a fire. Every year, Sotheby's, a well-established international auction company, holds a regular auction of Chinese cultural relics in Hong Kong, and the auction price has repeatedly broken the price record of Chinese cultural relics, such as in 2007, at the spring auction of Hong Kong Jiasted, the Ming Dynasty Yongle year's "blue and white inner and outer bottom dragon play bead pattern rib wash" was directly auctioned for 49 million.

These auctions are public spaces that symbolize status, wealth, and refined taste. Each auction is pre-printed with a delicate color catalogue, the auction venue is set up in a magnificent and luxurious hotel, the spacious and tall auction exhibition hall is full of light, the upper class people in fine clothes gather, the waiter holds a silver wine glass, the auction site is equipped with a computer price display and physical screen projection synchronized with the auctioneer's bidding, there is also an international direct telephone, and even satellite live broadcast. On the other side of the show and --- other end of the show, Hollywood Road was a different story entirely.

Get off at the Central MTR station on Hong Kong Island and follow the escalator consisting of multiple outdoor pedestrian lifts to Victoria Peak halfway up to Hollywood Road. Wong Kar-wai's fans will surely remember Tony Leung's residence in "Chongqing Forest", which is located in a Chinese-style residential building next to an elevator. Hollywood Road is the earliest street to be built in Hong Kong since the opening of the port, named after the holly trees that were overgrown in those years, and is now a famous antique street in Hong Kong.

Here, the antique shop is small, only about ten square meters, and some "mini" shops have only one meter square counter, which can only be regarded as a stall; The store is large, from the first floor to the third floor, like a small museum. Regardless of the size of the store, the store is quiet and elegant, and there are a wide variety of antiques, such as "Chinese-style" furniture, scrolls, ceramics, etc., as well as old electric fans, phonographs, clocks, pens, lighters, and other antiques from Japan, Thailand, and other countries.

At this time, Lin Yi followed Hai Baichuan to walk on the antique street of Hollywood Road, browsing everything here.

"How about it, Mr. Lin, this place is interesting."

"It's not just fun, it's great." Lin Yi's eyes were not enough, and he exclaimed. "I didn't expect there to be so many antique shops in Hong Kong." At this time, Lin Yat had a further understanding of Hong Kong's antique culture.

Hai Baichuan smiled, "It's good if you like it, I was afraid that you wouldn't like it here." ”

"Why, when I was in my hometown, I liked to go to the antique market, but there are many fewer things there than here." Lin Yi casually looked at an antique shop, and saw that it was stuffed with things, such as clay pots, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, wooden boxes, and bronze mirrors...... The whole nine yards.

"But Mr. Hai, why did you come here?" Lin Yi couldn't help but look back and ask.

Hai Baichuan smiled and said: "Don't forget, I am in the auction business, in addition to the guests who take the initiative to send our lots to auction, we also mainly look for some treasures by ourselves, set the reserve price, and then put them up for auction...... This is called 'collecting ashes'. ”

Collecting ashes?

Lin Yi seems to understand whether he understands or not.

Hai Baichuan patiently explained to him.

It turns out that many people think that auction houses operate by eating customer commissions and taking auction owners' commissions. In fact, after all, there are many auction houses now, fierce competition with each other, and the customers who come are very limited, the so-called monks have more porridge and less, for this reason, many auction companies have found another way, relying on picking up leaks in the market, Taobao, and then taking the treasure to their own company for auction, in order to make profits.

In addition, this has the advantage of being able to gather popularity, so that people can see that the company has good things on the auction from time to time, so as to brush up on credibility and rating, just like many online stores, first punch drills, and then rush to the crown...... With a good reputation and a good grade, it will be able to attract more customers and receive more customers.

As for "accumulating ashes" is the name of Hong Kong, it is a metaphor for saving old goods to hold themselves up.

After listening to Hai Baichuan's explanation, Lin Yi realized that the auction house still has this kind of doorway, and it seems that it is not easy to do anything.

However, Lin Yi immediately had another question, since he was here to Taobao, why did Hai Baichuan bring himself? Could it be ...... Lin Yi immediately had a strange thought.

Without waiting for Lin Yi to figure things out, he saw Hai Baichuan pointing to the shops in front of him and said, "The shops over there are also very good, we might as well go in and take a look around." ”

Lin Yi can say anything, just take a look, anyway, he is quite curious about the things inside.

In this way, Lin Yi followed Hai Baichuan, an "old connoisseur", and went in and out of those large and small antique shops, which can be regarded as a real insight.

……

In fact, everyone's hobbies are different, unlike Hai Baichuan who likes to go to those shops with larger cards, Lin Yi especially likes to visit those dark and dark shops, the bosses sit idly, and the guests don't get up when they come. So it was like entering a no-man's land, looking down and picking and choosing, and feeling that something particularly desirable was taken in the palm of his hand and played.

For example, there is a palm-sized powder box, and a lotus flower is painted on the lid to be decorated, and the lotus is wrapped in a translucent green glaze, as if it has just surfaced, and the long round petals are fleshy, and they bloom quietly and innocently. Holding this flower silently, Lin Yi remembered the warm and peaceful little flower that the Buddha was smiling. Similarly, what does it feel like to shake the pendant and fiddle with the threads on the tassels? The years are like water, and the world is vicissitudes! Perhaps, this is just a subtle inner experience.

Most of the big stores are rich in goods and beautifully displayed. Such a shop, which mainly deals in ancient ceramics, is inextricably linked to the mainland and foreign art markets. Ancient ceramics and bronzes were favored in Europe, and it is said that in those old capitalist countries, aristocrats did not have a collection of Chinese ancient porcelain in their homes, and they were subject to "discrimination". Therefore, in recent years, major foreign auction companies have repeatedly set new highs in the price of Chinese antique porcelain. Some things flow to Hong Kong and then overseas through various channels. There are also some big shops who invest in the works of young and middle-aged painters who are emerging in the mainland, and most of the western oil painters who are now popular in the Western world are promoted through this channel. Prices here are naturally more expensive than in the mainland, but much cheaper than auctions and the European and American markets.

In fact, as long as people are not stupid, especially with the heating up of antique collection in the mainland, the price has skyrocketed, and the supply is in short supply, many shrewd mainland antique dealers have naturally taken a fancy to this treasure of feng shui, and often wander around the street to buy goods, but the high-priced antiques still flow towards Europe and the United States, so when Lin Yi was wandering around, he saw many foreigners also dangling in various shops, and asked in Hong Kong from time to time: "How much money?" Can it be cheaper? Otherwise, it is a thumbs up and keeps "good" and then "good", needless to say, these are all foreign "old fritters" in some Taobao teams.

Almost after visiting these large and small stores, Lin Yi also tried to find a few things, but as soon as he opened his mouth to ask the price, it was either hundreds of thousands or millions, which made Lin Yi embarrassed to ask, according to these prices, his Lin Yi's entire net worth is estimated to be worth one or two Ming and Qing vases...... That's really, coming to the treasure place to know the poor, and not the ordinary poor.

For Hai Baichuan, those bosses' antique quotations don't care at all, he runs an auction company, and he is embarrassed to say that the auctioned things are only millions. Therefore, Hai Baichuan went down all the way to observe the changes in Lin Yi's expression, more than observing those antiques.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Hai Baichuan said to Lin Yi with a smile: "These shops have to pay high rent, in Hong Kong, every inch of land is expensive, even the smallest antique store has to pay hundreds of thousands of rent a month, so there are many shops that can't bear it and move out, these who don't move out, they have to work antiques, so you understand......"

Of course, Lin Yi understands that the wool comes from the sheep, and customers like him are undoubtedly plucked sheep.

Seeing that Lin Yi seemed to be a little depressed, thinking about it, he wandered around for most of the day, and finally fell in love with a few things, but they were all hundreds of thousands, millions, which made people dare not ask, and his kidney hurt, what fun is there in this?

So Hai Baichuan smiled again: "If you want to Taobao here to pick up leaks, the shop is not good, the bosses are too shrewd, and they have already calculated the price code of the old goods in their hands, so let's go to the stall." ”

"Stalls, there are stalls here, too?" Lin Yi's eyes widened.

"Why not?" Hai Baichuan said with a smile, "Actually, picking up treasures from the stalls is the best way to train your eyes, because many people can't look at the things on the stalls, thinking that they are petty fights, but often there are some treasures hidden in these things--- tell you a secret, oh, many of the things I auctioned are actually picked up from here!" After Hai Baichuan said this, his originally calm and sophisticated face actually raised a trace of childlike pride.

……

As a big man in the auction industry, Hai Baichuan rarely shares his experience of Taobao leakage with others, which makes him very happy.

In fact, it is true, no matter how capable the Haida boss is and how much money he makes, for him, the proudest thing is to be able to discern pearls and pick up leaks on the stalls.

People are expressive. Especially when making money and doing business has become a common thing, that kind of inconspicuous small ability has become a capital worth showing off.

Therefore, when Hai Baichuan told Lin Yi about the leaks he had picked up in these small antique beaches, that mood was proud, happy, and difficult to replace if he made a lot of money.

Lin Yi listened very seriously, which made Hai Baichuan completely regard Lin Yi as a rare "bosom friend".

It's hard to find a bosom friend, let alone such a young bosom friend.

In the future, there is even more to be done.

But before that, we have to go through the following tests. (To be continued.) )